


Shattered Into Ash

by leviosaphoenix



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2018-02-21 19:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2479079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leviosaphoenix/pseuds/leviosaphoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray Palmer finds out the hard way that his girlfriend really, really likes green. Loosely set post 3x02.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shattered Into Ash

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone. This is a little something I wrote after the most recent episode, after a friend pointed out that Felicity wore a green(-ish) dress in the final scene. I don't know much about The Atom, so I've based this entirely on how Ray has been shown to be thus far (honestly, not particularly likeable? arrogant? borderline controlling?) and speculation. It's my first attempt at canon, so I hope I've done a decent job.
> 
> I just want to thank you all for the insanely phenomenal response to my last story, and for reading this as well. Enjoy!

It begins with an olive green dress on the day he finally thinks he’s won.

She came to him, wanting more out of life, and he wishes he knew what, or who, drove her to the edge, to tumble down the rocky cliff face toward him. Felicity Smoak, the girl who tore through his technology leaving virtual debris in her wake, is finally caving in.

Ray Palmer is accustomed to getting what he wants.

He chose Felicity, having long admired her work in the IT field. His extensive research into her brought up one tiny speck on her record – an interrogation regarding the city’s vigilante. He could find nothing else, so he pushed it aside, but this tiny tidbit of information niggles at his brain the moment he sees that olive green dress, a connection he doesn’t even know he’s making.

It’s a coincidence, of course.

It has to be.

 

<\---««

 

He likes it when she wears her hair down.

He’d never tell her, but he doesn’t really like the piercing in her ear. It doesn’t suit the Felicity he’s come to know on the two dates they’ve had, a little reserved, always pensive. It fits the wilder, free-spirited woman that gave him sass to his face and decimated all of his files when he pissed her off.

One day, while searching her purse for a pen, he finds it, a jewelry box the size of his thumb. When he flicks it open, he finds an arrow-shaped bar for her ear in rose gold. He has never seen her wear it. Silently, he slips it into his pocket and says nothing.

She tears apart her bedroom that night, but she won’t tell him what she’s looking for.

 

<\---««

 

They are at a colleague’s birthday party when somebody brings up the night a crazed drug baron held Felicity hostage in the QC offices. Felicity blushes when asked about the vigilante, but he doesn’t miss the distant look she gets in her eyes as she evades the line of questioning.

Later, in bed, he tries for answers. She laughs lightly, telling him that the mask does in fact conceal the Arrow’s identity, and, though she’s grateful, she has no idea why he saved her that night. She then swiftly changes the topic.

He appreciates her skill in building firewalls to protect his company, but he wishes he knew how to hack those she constructs around herself.

 

<\---««

 

He plans an elaborate dinner for them, and though she seems surprised, it nears annoyance more than delight.

She’s on edge the whole evening; her phone sits beside her on the table and her emerald-painted fingernails drum impatiently on the wood. He tells himself he’s being paranoid – perhaps she just likes green.

The phone finally rings and she excuses herself from the table at lightning speed. He can see her through the window, her breath puffing in front of her in the brisk air as she argues animatedly with whomever is on the other end of the line.

When she returns, the food is cold and her face is carefully schooled into a neutral expression.

He knows better than to ask.

 

<\---««

 

It’s green earrings today.

She cancelled their plans the previous night with little explanation, and at the moment she looks like she could drop off to sleep at any given moment. She blames it on a bad stomach bug, but he’s pretty sure the slight curl in her hair is because her faithful straightener wasn’t accessible when she got ready for work this morning. He doesn’t for a second suspect that she’s cheating, but it still angers him that she won’t come clean about how and where she spends her nights. He considers himself a reasonable man, but he is finding her brush-offs increasingly irritating.

Those stupid, green, star-shaped earrings aren’t helping her case, either.

 

<\---««

 

One night, he wakes up to her soft sobs as she clutches a slightly bent photograph in her shaking hands. He tries to comfort her, but she flinches away from his touch. She apologizes the next day, explaining that her close friend had passed away suddenly a few months back and that it had been said friend’s birthday.

He sneaks a glance at the photo later. Felicity stands between a freckled blonde in a leather jacket and a youngish guy in a red hoodie. She looks happier than he’s ever seen her; her blue eyes are not haunted.

She’s never mentioned these friends to him.

 

<\---««

 

He doesn’t ask her about the bottle green lingerie set, tags still attached, buried right at the back of her underwear drawer. He knows she bought it with somebody else in mind.

 

<\---««

 

He would never admit it to himself, but he’s known for a long time; still, it’s a dull ache when he sees a dark figure with a bow scaling her fire escape. He pauses before getting out of his car, slowly heading up to her apartment and waiting patiently for her to answer the door.

Her eyes are red, but she forces a smile and blames allergies. He makes an excuse not to stay for long, seeing her eyes stray to her closed bedroom door and realizing that a murderer with a hero complex awaited her behind it.

He sits in his car for a long time, wondering if he’s insane for allowing his girlfriend to spend time with a criminal. Just as he’s about to leave, he glances up and sees them standing on the fire escape. In the dim streetlight, he can see that she’s wrapped up in a forest green men’s hoodie, which certainly doesn’t belong to him. The vigilante pulls her into a warm embrace, his hand in her hair, her cheek to his chest, a moment of tenderness he didn’t think the Arrow was capable of.

She steps back, and the figure disappears into the night as she watches from her window.

Ray drives away, feeling vaguely like he’s intruded on something more intimate than a hug between friends.

 

<\---««

 

A few days pass before they have a moment to themselves.

He can’t help but stare at the black and green dress she wears. She studies something on her tablet before glancing up with a guarded smile.

“You wanted to see me?”

“I know you’re working with the vigilante.” He holds out the box with the arrow industrial in it – he’s kept it all this time – and her eyes widen slightly in recognition.

“You took that? Why?”

“To confirm something I already suspected. You’re working with him.”

She sees immediately that there is no point in denying it. “I’ve helped him with tech stuff once or twice. That’s all. I don’t even know his real name.”

It saddens him to see her lie. “It’s more than that, and we both know it.”

“So, what? Are you going to turn me in? The SCPD isn’t looking for him anymore, remember?” she demands, her hands on her hips.

“It’s dangerous, Felicity.”

“You don’t think I know that?”

They face off for a moment, refusing to back down.

“You came to me,” he begins, “saying that you wanted more. Is that what you meant? You wanted more than working for some criminal?”

She doesn’t answer, simply dropping her gaze to the ground.

“I’ve never been one to back down from competition, but I don’t even know who I’m up against here.”

She looks up, sharply, her face dark with anger. “I’m not a prize to be won, Ray. It’s not a choice between you and him. Working with the Arrow is part of who I am.”

“And it takes precedence over me.” It’s a statement, not a question.

“It’s my _more_ ,” she says, softly. “I thought… that day, when I came to you, I was upset, and angry.”

“With him.”

She met his eyes, her gaze determined. “Yes. I thought I had to establish a life outside of what we do, but I realized how much it mattered to me.”

He frowned. “What mattered?”

“Achieving something; being part of something good. There have been losses, sure, but all that we’ve done? I can’t give that up, so don’t ask me to, because I don’t have to tell you what my answer will be.”

They stare at each other for a minute, before he nods to himself, as if she confirmed what he already knew. He leans forward to peck her cheek.

“Goodbye, Felicity. I hope he’s worth it.”

She glances back over her shoulder as she leaves, half a smile on her face. “He is.”

 

<\---««

 

Two weeks later, there’s a picture in the _Starling Herald_ of two unknown people on a rooftop in a passionate kiss. One wears a hood and green leather, the other a blonde ponytail and a rose gold arrow in her ear.

Ray Palmer sighs and sets down the newspaper, taking a sip of his morning coffee.

He is accustomed to getting what he wants.

It’s just unlucky for him that Felicity Smoak’s heart already belonged to somebody else. 


End file.
